David Bowdich, assistant director in charge of the FBI's L.A. office, oversees the most populous beat in law enforcement — seven Southern California counties, some 44,000 square miles, and nearly 19 million people. He joined the bureau in 1995, and most recently headed the office's joint counter-terrorism task force, with its myriad local police agencies and a reach as far as terrorist investigations in Southeast Asia. Apart from the daily challenges of terrorism, crime and corruption, Bowdich hopes to create a staff that looks and sounds more like the population around it. To keep an ear to the ground in a place as diverse as this, you have to be able to understand what's being said.

On a Grammy night heavy on nostalgia and generally lacking in surprise, Beck bested heavily favored artists such as Beyonce and Sam Smith for album of the year.
The 57th annual Grammy Awards gave Beck’s “Morning Phase” its highest...

The California singer-songwriter Beck has won the Grammy for album of the year for his disc, "Morning Phase."
The mellow CD won the Grammy for best rock album earlier Sunday. "Morning Phase" has been described as a companion piece to Beck's 2002 album,...

Local singer-songwriter Beck won album of the year for his quiet, meditative “Morning Phase,” an album of hushed orchestrations that was critically lauded for its lush melancholia.
“Morning Phase” was Beck’s first album-of-...

More than two decades after “Loser,” Beck Hansen shows no sign of relenting in his quest for new vistas to explore and new thoughts on the human condition to share, all of which led voters to reward him with the rock album Grammy for “...

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The last time Beck was in competition for a Grammy Award for album of the year he ended up one of several young acts – along with Eminem and Radiohead – to be shut out by an unexpected win by the veterans of Steely Dan.
Fourteen years later, Beck will be the veteran on Sunday night when the 44-year-old singer-songwriter goes up against Beyoncé, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran and Pharrell Williams for the Grammys’ most prestigious prize. (Whether he manages to steal the kids’ lunches...

Good news! I’m going to skip the part where we pretend the Grammys recognize the absolute best the music industry has to offer. Pharrell for Album of the Year? Iggy Azalea for anything? Seriously?
So let’s proceed and present the kind of awards that really should be given out Sunday.
Best Worst Song: “Fancy,” Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX (nominated for Record of the Year and more)
Yes, this song was everywhere in 2014. Does that mean it’s not terrible, or that Azalea...

In the opening measures of Björk's new album, "Vulnicura," the Icelandic artist offers a direct statement of purpose, one involving personal upheaval she describes as "a juxtapositioning fate." Mentioning "moments of clarity as so rare, I better document this," Björk directs her gaze in that first song, "Stonemilker," on the dissolution of a relationship.
As she does so, what can be described only as Björkian strings and beats swirl around her. These drifting arrangements soar through tracks like...

Beck Photos

It’s a well-established fact that nothing is good anymore unless it unfolds on social media. If I eat a bowl of ice cream and don’t live-tweet the experience, it’s nothing but empty calories and a brain freeze.
With that in mind, the Recording Academy spent Friday releasing its nominees for next year’s Grammy awards in a slow, electronic trickle, starting with a few announcements on CBS’s “This Morning” and then continuing to dispense more names throughout...

Every now and then, on the way to her job, Lucy Wainwright Roche calls her dad, who happens to know all the people she works with and the nuances of every building she works in.
"I don't think a lot of people have that connection," she says, "You don't work in the same company as your family, yet they know what you're doing all day."
A former third-grade teacher, Roche relatively recently entered what she calls "the family business." Her father is veteran singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III; her...

Like a fisherman casting a lure, Beck on Sunday night offered a lesson in how to draw a tired, coming-down crowd and muster one more burst of adrenalin.
Moving through the quick-tempoed party jams before going deep with songs from his new album, "Morning Phase," the Los Angeles singer understood that nothing gets the crowd hooked like a singalong anthem with a beat. Hence a roller coaster set that was front-loaded with early jams "Devils Haircut" and "Loser," two '90s oldies that helped bridge a gap...